John mtjhdock



No. 31,820. PATENTED MAR. 26, 1361; J. MURDOGK.

BANK NOTE.

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UNITED sTATEs PATENT onnron.

JOHN MURDOOK, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

BANK-NOTE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 31,820, dated March 26, 1861.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN MURDoon, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in Bank Notes to Prevent Their Alteration, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact clescription, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which' Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, are views of bank notes, respectively of the denominations, one, three, ten, twenty and one thousand dollars.

Many designs for bank bills have been suggested which were intended to prevent the alteration of a bill from one denomination to another, but none of them with which I am acquainted have yet answered the de sired end.

The object of my present invention is to produce a bank bill which can not be altered, and my invention consists in a bill, the entire printing, wording, or lettering of which is embodied and contained within the form of a large numeral, representing the denomination of the bill, so that the whole bill itself mustbe destroyed before the numeral can be changed.

That others skilled in the art may understand and use my invention I will proceed to describe the manner in which I have carried out the same.

In the said drawings the title of the bank,

' the promise to pay, the denomination of the note, the letter and number are printed, and the signatures of the president and cashier and the date are intended to be-written on the face of the note within the space covered by the large numeral which designates the denomination of the note.

I am aware that numerals have been printed on the face of a bank note, and that words, numbers and designs have been prlnted and engraved within the space covered by such numerals, but in such cases the body of the note was made up of printing or engraving, and the numeral was only something additional to the title of the note to help distinguish it, and was generally independent of the title of the bank and the signatures of the officers. This did not answer the desired end, as these numerals as well as the printed words expressing the denomination of the note were the very parts so often fraudulently changed. But with my improved bank note above described, this change could. not be effected, as the whole body of the note, or that part of it on which is any printing, engraving, or writing is embraced within the form of a numeral, which can not be changed without destroying the whole note.

Another advantage I may mention which the above described style of note has over others, is that the denomination may be more readily recognized, and to facilitate this recognition, diiferent colors may be used for difierent denominations, or the numeral in profile of one color maybe printed on a sheet of paper of a difierent color.

I do not claim printing a numeral on the face of a bank note, the remainder of which is occupied by other printing or Writing or by "arious vignettes or designs. But

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

' A bank note, in which all of the printing, engraving and writing is embodied in the form of a numeral designating the denomination of the note substantially as: described for the purpose specified.

- J NO MURDOCK.

itnesses:

It. A. MORTIMER, A. L. RAYNoLDs. 

